Investigator doubts FIR despite confessions

Two days after the registration of the FIR, victim’s medico-legal examination still pending.

LAHORE: Two days after the registration of the FIR, Sub Inspector Muhammad Amin, the investigation officer (IO), in the kidnap and gang rape case against an ASI among others has not arranged for the victim’s medico-legal examination, The Express Tribune learnt it on Friday.

“The investigation officer is impeding the process to favour his (accused) colleague,” an official at the Shahdara police station said.

The complainant told The Express Tribune on Friday that she had reached the police station during working hours. The IO, she said, kept her waiting, and later told her that it was too late in the day for a medico-legal examination. She was told to return on Saturday, she added. When asked about his reason for the delay in the medico-legal examination, the IO said that the complainant had arrived at the police station after office hours and therefore could not be taken to a hospital. He confirmed that he had asked her to come on Saturday during office hours.

The IO said he doubted the veracity of the complaint. The complainant, he said, apparently wanted to implicate the accused over a family grudge. He said the accused and the complainant had known each other quite well.

Off the record, the accused who got interim bail, confessed their offence at the Shahdara police station, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Sources close to the police said that two of the three accused visited the police station with some ‘influential people’ and confessed to their crime. Both ASI Ali and his accomplice Tariq, they said, admitted that they had committed the rape. However, they said, Amir, the third accused, had just stood beside them and not raped the woman. They denied that they had shot any videos. They said that they had just taken a few photographs of her using their mobile phones. These, too, were later deleted.

Ijaz Shafi Dogar, the superintendent of police (Investigation) has said that the guilty would be punished regardless of their social status. He said that there was no way an investigation officer could declare the suspects innocent if evidence pointed to their guilt. He said while it was true that sometimes complainants registered false FIRs against their opponents, he would verify the genuineness of the FIR, and ensure action against the guilty.

In the FIR, the complainant has said that ASI Ali, Tariq and Amir had kidnapped and raped her. She has said during the scuffle her three-year-old son was also injured. She has said that she was detained for two days and video footage of her rape was sent to her in-laws and her parents. Her male relatives have since then refused to let her enter their houses.

The police had initially refused to register an FIR against the ASI. It was later registered on a directive from the CM’s Complaint Cell.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2010.